January / February 2012

By Roy Saunderson Has the demand for candor, openness, and personal responsibility in society—a.k.a., “transparency”—effectively affected the field of learning and development?

By Michael Rosenthal Q: With the economy slowly improving, my organization finally has reignited our development initiatives. However, since our current budget pales compared to the pre-recession years, I have been asked to focus our training efforts on leadership, management, and sales. I’d like to consolidate as much as possible to realize economies of scale. I can see some intersection between leadership and management, but I am having trouble identifying common threads with sales. What are some best practices that apply to all three?

By Lorri Freifeld Many employees claim they learn best while doing, so they prefer to dive right in and learn as they go when they get a new job or take on new responsibilities. But the most successful and quickest learning on the job takes place when there is a formal on-the-job training (OJT) program—a fact many organizations and managers fail to take into account.

By Margery Weinstein

By Margery Weinstein With the health-care industry currently the largest employer in the United States and its labor market expected to achieve a 49 percent growth in the next five years, Miami Children’s Hospital (MCH) faced a steep challenge: a doubling of the demand for talented people in health care coupled with a labor supply that continues to dwindle. The hospital answered that challenge with initiatives that attract, train, and retain the kind of talented people the organization needs to lead it into the future.

By Lorri Freifeld It’s not surprising an insurance company would have an insurance policy for the future. But Farmers Insurance takes that strategy one step further, setting its sights on 2020 with a far-reaching plan to foster growth, productivity, and leadership development through intensive training.

By Lorri Freifeld One may be the loneliest number, but Verizon isn’t complaining. After appearing five times in the Top 10 over the last six years, the telecommunications company captured the No. 1 spot on the Training Top 125 for the first time in 2012. Despite a relatively flat training budget and a work stoppage that resulted from the expiration of union collective bargaining agreements, Verizon remained steadfast in its commitment to effective training tied to corporate strategic goals—and had the results to show for it.

Want to have a wickedly successful 2012? Vickie Milazzo, RN, MSN, JD, owner of Vickie Milazzo Institute and author of The New York Times bestseller, “Wicked Success Is Inside Every Woman” (Wiley, 2011, www.WickedSuccess.com), has some ideas about where to start:

By Jason W. Womack, MEd, MA Happy New Year... and “Welcome back to work!” Now, look around your desk and your office. Is there clutter? Are there stacks of papers or files? Do you feel the “stress of the undone?”

The late Comedian George Carlin once said, “Do you hate your job? Sorry to hear that. There’s a support group for that. It’s called EVERYBODY, and they meet at the bar!” As a consultant on employee engagement to major health-care companies, Melissa Evans understands that feeling well. Her solution to it, however, is a little “uncorporate.”